Debating Diseases in Nineteenth-Century Colombia: Causes, Interests, and the Pasteurian Therapeutics.

This article explores the medical conceptualization of the causes of diseases in nineteenth-century Colombia. It traces the history of some of the pathologies that were of major concern among nineteenth-century doctors: periodic fevers (yellow fever and malaria), continuous fevers (typhoid fever), and leprosy (Greek elephantiasis). By comparing the transforming conceptualizations of these diseases, this article shows that their changing pattern, the idea of climatic determinism of diseases (neo-Hippocratism and medical geography), the weak standing of the medical community in Colombian society, as well as Pasteurian germ practices were all crucial in the uneven and varied reshaping of their understanding.

Malaria and quinine resistance: a medical and scientific issue between Brazil and Germany (1907-19).

This article addresses the discussion about quinine-resistant malaria plasmodium in the early decades of the twentieth century. Observed by Arthur Neiva in Rio de Janeiro in 1907, the biological and social resistance of malaria sufferers to preventive and curative treatment with quinine was corroborated three years later by Oswaldo Cruz during the construction of the Madeira-Mamoré Railway in the Brazilian Amazon. Likewise in 1910, ailing German workers were transferred from Brazil to Hamburg's Institute for Maritime and Tropical Diseases, where quinine resistance was confirmed by Bernard Nocht and Heinrich Werner. When the First World War saw failures in treating and preventing malaria with quinine along with violent outbreaks of the disease on the Turkish and Balkan fronts, resistance to this alkaloid became the topic of the day within the field of experimental medicine in Germany. New attempts were made to account for the resistance, especially by the physician Ernst Rodenwaldt, who explored the topic by applying modern theories on heredity. The present article offers a preliminary survey and analysis of pronouncements about quinine resistance, shedding new light on the circulation of knowledge in the field of tropical medicine.

[A history of malaria in modern Korea 1876-1945].

Although it is not certain when malaria began to appear in Korea, malaria is believed to have been an endemic disease from ancient times. It was Dr. H. N. Allen (1858-1932) who made the first description and diagnosis of malaria in terms of Western medicine. In his first year report (1885) of Korean Government Hospital he mentioned malaria as the most prevalent disease. Very effective anti-malarial drug quinine was imported and it made great contribution in treating malaria. After Japan had annexed Korea in 1910, policies for public health system were fundamentally revised. Japan assumed control of Korean medical institutions and built high-quality Western hospitals for the health care of Japanese residents. The infectious diseases which were under special surveillance were cholera, typhoid fever, dysentery, typhus, scarlet fever, smallpox, and paratyphoid fever. Among chronic infectious diseases tuberculosis and leprosy were those under special control. Malaria, however, was not one of these specially controlled infectious diseases although it was widely spread throughout the peninsula. But serious studies on malaria were carried out by Japanese medical scientists. In particular, a Japanese parasitologist Kobayasi Harujiro(1884-1969) carried out extensive studies on human parasites, including malaria, in Korea. According to his study, most of the malaria in Korea turned out to be tertian fever. In spite of its high prevalence, malaria did not draw much attention from the colonial authorities and no serious measure was taken since tertian fever is a mild form of malaria caused by Plasmodium vivax and is not so much fatal as tropical malaria caused by P. falciparum. And tertian malaria was easily controlled by taking quinine. Although the majority of malaria in Korea was tertian fever, other types were not absent. Quartan fever was not rarely reported in 1930s. The attitude of colonial authorities toward malaria in Korea was contrasted with that in Taiwan. After Japan had set out to colonize Taiwan as a result of Sino-Japanese war, malaria in Taiwan was a big obstacle to the colonization process. Therefore, a lot of medical scientists were asked to engage the malaria research in order to handle health problems in colonized countries caused by malaria. Unlike the situation in Taiwan, malaria in Korea did not cause a serious health problem as in Taiwan. However, its risk was not negligible. In 1933 there were almost 130,000 malaria patients in Korea and 1,800 patients among them died of malaria. The Japanese Government General took measures to control malaria especially during the 1930s and the number of patients decreased. However, as Japan engaged in the World War II, the general hygienic state of the society worsened and the number of malarial patients increased. The worsened situation remains the same after Liberation (1945) and during the Korean war (1950-53).

A short history of dapsone, or an alternative model of drug development.

From 1936 until 1996, the drug dapsone treated a diverse array of diseases, including tuberculosis, leprosy, malaria, and AIDS-related pneumonia. This article explores how dapsone transformed from a cure for one disease into a treatment for a totally different malady. This process of reinvention in the clinic represents an alternative model of drug development that the historical literature, focused on success in the laboratory, has largely ignored. The core of the paper discusses the reinvention of dapsone as an antimalarial in the Vietnam War through trials led by Robert J. T. Joy, a physician and military officer. As a case study, it offers a fresh perspective on the clinic-as-laboratory approach that other scholars have addressed in a civilian context. Viewing the randomized clinical trial (RCT) through a military prism will demonstrate how a combat environment combined with the regimentation of the armed forces affected the standard methodology of the RCT.

Cerejeiras e cafezais: relações médico-científicas entre Brasil e Japão e a saga de Hideyo Noguchi / Cherry trees and coffee fields: medical and scientific relations between Brazil and Japan and the saga of Hideyo Noguchi

História dos sanitaristas da FSP/USP destaque nas páginas, 220-229, 297-299, 397, entre outras....

[Contribution of paleopathology to defining the pathocoenosis of infectious diseases (Part one)]. / Apporti della paleopatologia alla definizione della patocenosi delle malattie infettive (prima parte).

Studying the remains of mummies obtained by archaeological research may provide key information concerning historical pathocoenosis. Paleopathology makes it possible to recognise, characterise and connect different features involved in human pathocoenosis, such as epidemiology, in a historical perspective, and cultural development, via the introduction of new livestock farming techniques and agriculture in general. Several distinct pathologies may produce direct and indirect changes in the skeleton of affected individuals. Therefore bone remains represent very important sources of information to study such diseases. Changes related to trauma and nutrition deficiency as well as secondary signs, induced by tuberculosis, brucellosis, leprosy, syphilis, malaria, periostitis and aspecific osteomyelitis, persist in bones. In addition, other diseases may cause indirect alterations and subsequent secondary bone in the skeleton via different mechanisms. A secondary bone dimorphism may be induced by poliomyelitis. Aspecific lesions may arise in a skeletal bone and then cause secondary alterations in near-bone segments. Reviewing studies of paleopathologic research found in the literature, we emphasize the relationship between the appearance of major infectious diseases and the development of human activities; whereas it is clear that the introduction of livestock farming had a key role in the pathocoenosis of distinct infections such as tuberculosis, brucellosis and leprosy, some doubts and uncertainty remain in relation to the origin of others with epidemiologically important pathologies, such as syphilis.

O Plano de Saneamento da Amazônia (1940-1942) / The Amazon Sanitation Plan (1940-1942)

Aborda o Plano de Saneamento da Amazônia e o contexto político de sua formulação, entre 1940 e 1941, o papel de Getúlio Vargas, a atuação de seus principais protagonistas como Evandro Chagas, João de Barros Barreto e Valério Konder, as suas principais propostas e o seu ocaso a partir de 1942, por conta da criação do Serviço Especial de Saúde Pública (SESP), fruto dos acordos de cooperação entre Brasil e Estados Unidos, com o envolvimento de ambos na Segunda Guerra Mundial. Inclui a reprodução do Plano publicado em dezembro de 1941 nos Arquivos de Higiene.

O Plano de Saneamento da Amazônia (1940-1942) / The Amazon Sanitation Plan (1940-1942)

Aborda o Plano de Saneamento da Amazônia e o contexto político de sua formulação, entre 1940 e 1941, o papel de Getúlio Vargas, a atuação de seus principais protagonistas como Evandro Chagas, João de Barros Barreto e Valério Konder, as suas principais propostas e o seu ocaso a partir de 1942, por conta da criação do Serviço Especial de Saúde Pública (SESP), fruto dos acordos de cooperação entre Brasil e Estados Unidos, com o envolvimento de ambos na Segunda Guerra Mundial. Inclui a reprodução do Plano publicado em dezembro de 1941 nos Arquivos de Higiene.(AU)

[The Amazon Sanitation Plan (1940-1942)]. / O Plano de Saneamento da Amazônia (1940-1942).

The article addresses the Amazon Sanitation Plan and the political context in which it was formulated between 1940 and 1941. It examines the role of Getúlio Vargas, the activities of the plan's main protagonists (such as Evandro Chagas, João de Barros Barreto, and Valério Konder), its key proposals, and its demise as of 1942 upon creation of the Special Public Health Service (Sesp), which grew out of cooperation agreements between Brazil and the US following both nations' involvement in World War II. A reproduction of the Plan as published in the Arquivos de Higiene in 1941 is included.

Adolpho Lutz and the origins of medical entomology in Brazil.

Adolpho Lutz (1855-1940) formed a bridge between the Bahian Tropicalist School and post-Mansonian medicine. Before taking over as head of the São Paulo Bacteriological Institute (1893), Lutz traveled through a variety of regions and delved into various disciplines. In the 1880s, he was already arguing that leprosy was transmitted by mosquitoes. Carbuncles, cholera, and typhoid fever were then the accepted models for investigating the etiology of infectious diseases. Following the discovery of how malaria was transmitted, attention turned to hematophagous diptera. Physicians, bacteriologists, zoologists, and veterinarians reshaped the network of actors involved in the 'hunt' for the agents and transmitters of diseases, as they began relying on analogies with malaria and yellow fever. Edwin Ray Lankester, director of the British Museum (Natural History), launched then a worldwide investigation into species that might be linked to human disease. The species described by Lutz and his proposed classification system were vital to Frederick Theobald's fundamental work in medical entomology, published in the early twentieth century. In 1908, Lutz brought with him to the Oswaldo Cruz Institute a remarkable quantity of research and experiments in all branches of the newly created "tropical medicine," devoted especially to entomology.

Adolpho Lutz: obra completa / Adolpho Lutz: complete works

Após introduçäo sobre a formaçäo de Adolpho Lutz e sua capacitaçäo como cientista, analisa alguns trechos de relatórios do Instituto Bacteriológico de 1893 a 1908; o parecer de Adolpho Lutz sobre um soro proposto para o tratamento da febre amarela; o relatório sobre sua missäo em Montevidéu para verificar a provável "descoberta" do Dr. Sanarelli relativa ao micróbio da febre amarela; os trabalhos sobre a febre amarela em Säo Paulo e sobre o mosquito como seu agente de propagaçäo; a descoberta da malária silvestre; as instruções para profilaxia do impaludismo; e, finalmente, as suas "Reminiscências da febre amarela no Estado de Säo Paulo", publicadas em 1930, quando Adolpho Lutz já era pesquisador do Instituto Oswaldo Cruz havia mais de 20 anos. (AU)

Febre amarela, malária e protozoologia

Após introdução sobre a formação de Adolpho Lutz e sua capacitação como cientista, analisa alguns trechos de relatórios do Instituto Bacteriológico de 1893 a 1908; o parecer de Adolpho Lutz sobre um soro proposto para o tratamento da febre amarela; o relatório sobre sua missão em Montevidéu para verificar a provável 'descoberta' do Dr. Sanarelli relativa ao micróbio da febre amarela; os trabalhos sobre a febre amarela em São Paulo e sobre o mosquito como seu agente de propagação; a descoberta da malária silvestre; as instruções para profilaxia do impaludismo; e, finalmente, as suas 'Reminiscências da febre amarela no Estado de São Paulo', publicadas em 1930, quando Adolpho Lutz já era pesquisador do Instituto Oswaldo Cruz havia mais de 20 anos.

Disease in Africa: a medical perspective from the 1950s.

So much attention is focused on the current HIV/AIDS epidemic in Africa that there is a tendency to overlook the grievous burden of disease from which the peoples of that Continent have suffered for centuries. This paper, based on letters sent in 1953/54 by a young doctor in Sierra Leone to his parents in Scotland, together with extracts from Makeni Hospital records of the same period, provides a factual account of front-line medicine in West Africa half a century ago.

Skeletal pathology in a prehistoric Pacific Island sample: issues in lesion recording, quantification, and interpretation.

This paper presents a profile of evidence of disease in a skeletal sample from Taumako Island, Southeast Solomon Islands, Melanesia, and aims to increase awareness of the prehistoric Pacific Island disease environment. It also addresses issues of lesion recording, quantification, and interpretation. Two methodologies for the determination of lesion prevalence were applied, one based on prevalence in observable individuals and one in skeletal elements. The aim of these methodologies was to provide objective data on skeletal lesions in this sample, with transparency in methods for application in comparative studies. The types of lesions observed were predominantly osteoblastic and affecting multiple bones, particularly in the lower limbs. The individual analysis yielded a prevalence of lesions affecting 56.4% of the postcranial sample from birth to old age. As expected, the skeletal element analysis yielded a lower prevalence, with 15.0% of skeletal elements affected. The skeletal element analysis also revealed a pattern of greater lower limb involvement, with a predilection for the tibia. The pattern of skeletal involvement was similar in both analyses, suggesting the validity of employing either method in paleopathological studies. A differential diagnosis of the lesions included osteomyelitis, treponemal disease, and leprosy. Metabolic disease was also considered for subadult lesions. Based on lesion type, skeletal distribution, and epidemiology of lesions in the sample, an etiology of yaws (Treponema pertenue) was suggested as responsible for nearly half the adult lesions, while multiple causes, including yaws, were suggested for the lesions in subadults.

[Two states in the history of the concept of contagion: from Hippocrates to Galen]. / Deux étapes dans l'histoire de la notion de contagion: d'Hippocrate à Galien.

The Hippocratic doctor does not believe any more in magico-religious "miasmata" that pollute whole populations; he accuses the environmental air, thus freeing his fellow-men from the fear of gods' wrath but impeding the rise of the concept of contagion and disconnecting his own experience from the vet's. Galen however observing a few cases of lepra in Minor Asia intuits human contagion.

Yellow fever, malaria and development: Atlantic Africa and the New World, 1647 to 1928

Malaria and yellow fever in the Atlantic world (Africa, the Caribbean, mainland America) are treated. In the evolution of these diseases, Development (involving the involuntary migration of millions of potential laborers from East to West) is found to be a principal motor force. As with leprosy in the nineteenth century, disease Constructs were important on shaping dominant peoples` attitutes. Construct yellow fever held that black Africans were immune to the disease. This mischievous understanding was taken to demonstrate that the Christian God had specially created them to serve as slaves in North, Meso- and South America. In Africa and Liverpool in the 1890s, British medical personnel further marginalized blacks by creating a malaria Construct.(AU)

From "forest malaria" to "bromeliad malaria": a case-study of scientific controversy and malaria control.

The article analyses the evolution of knowledge and rationale of control of a special case of malaria transmission based on Bromelia-Kerteszia complex. Since bromeliaceae function as a 'host of the carrier' and were previously associated with natural forests, the elucidation of bromeliad malaria historically elicited controversies concerning the imputation of Kertesziae as transmitters as well as over control strategies directed to bromelia eradication (manual removal, herbicides and deforestation), use of insecticides and chemoprophylaxis. Established authority, disciplinary traditions, conceptual premises and contemporary criteria for validating knowledge in the field partly explain the long time gap since Adolpho Lutz announced at the beginning of the century the existence of a new mosquito and breeding site as responsible for a 'forest malaria' epidemic occurring at a high altitude. The article brings attention to how economic, political and institutional determinants played an important role in redefining studies that led both in Trinidad and Brazil to the recognition of the importance of kerteszia transmission, including urban areas, and establishing new approaches to its study, most relevant of all the concurrence of broad ecological research. The article then describes the Brazilian campaign strategies which showed significant short-term results but had to wait four decades to achieve the goal of eradication due to the peculiar characteristics of this pathogenic complex. Finally, it brings attention to the importance of encompassing social values and discourses, in this case, environmental preservation, to understanding historical trends of malaria control programs.

From "forest malaria" to "bromeliad malaria": a case-study of scientific controversy and malaria control

The article analyses the evolution of knowledge and rationale of control of a special case of malaria transmission based on Bromelia-Kerteszia complex. Since bromeliaceae function as a 'host of the carrier' and were previously associated with natural forests, the elucidation of bromeliad malaria historically elicited controversies concerning the imputation of Kerteszaie as transmitters as well as over control strategies directed to bromelia eradication (manual removal, herbicides and deforestation), use of insecticides and chemoprophylaxis. Established authority, disciplinary traditions, conceptual premises and contemporary criteria for validating knowledge in the field partly explain the long time gap since Adolpho Lutz announced as the beginning of the century the existence of a new mosquito and breeding site as responsible for a 'forest malaria' epidemic occurring at a high altitude. The article brings attention to how economic, political and institutional determinants played an important role in redefining studies that led both in Trinidad and Brazil to the recognition of the importance of kerteszia transmission, including urban areas, and establishing new approaches to its study, most relevant of all the concurrence of broad ecological research. The article then describes the Brazilian campaign strategies which showed significant short-term results but had to wait four decades to achieve the goal of eradication due to the peculiar characteristics of this pathogenic complex. Finally, it brings attention to the importance of encompassing social values and discourses, in this case, environmental preservation, to understanding historical trends of malaria control programs(AU)

Tropical diseases

The history of tropical diseases can be divided into three phases and these are considered in turn in this chapter. The first section deals with the period up to the beginning of the twentieth century, that is, before the notion of 'tropical diseases'. Recent work has shown that this should no longer be regarded as a dark age, but rather one where medical endeavour was structured in terms of medical geography and the notion of 'diseases in the tropics'. The second section looks at the decades around the turn of the century, which saw the elucidation of the aetiologies of the classical tropical diseases and the institutionalization of tropical medicine. The final section discusses the measures subsequently taken to control tropical diseases, which have to be taken in a wide context because of the interdependence of medical, social and political factors.(AU)